Talking Animals

As we’ve done 14 times before—spanning the better part of five years–today’s program involved setting aside the usual “Talking Animals” format in order to present the show-length feature, “Ask The Trainer.”  In each session of ATT, listeners are invited to call or email (or text) questions about their dogs or cats. The

Dr. Holly Dutton–Medical Director at the Tampa and Clearwater locations of VEG ER for Pets, a national operation specializing in around-the-clock emergency care for pets—reviews some of the VEG ER distinguishing traits we covered in her June 2025 appearance on “Talking Animals,” as a prelude to today’s discussion focus

Dr. Jennifer Conrad—veterinarian, founder of The Paw Project, tireless crusader against declawing cats for a quarter century—recalls the initial impetus for her anti-declaw advocacy: her work, as a newly-minted veterinarian, with declawed big cats at a wildlife sanctuary. Conrad’s own history ended up dovetailing with

Steve Hindi–founder of SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), a national animal welfare organization concerned with halting and/or educating the public about pigeon shoots, rodeos, bullfighting, and canned hunts, among other issues—recounts the extended process by which he transformed from avid fisherman and hun

Joshua Lisbon–a researcher/educator/storyteller at the center of a new PBS/Nature documentary, “Willow: Diary of a Mountain Lion”—describes his background and experience (and academic training) before working on the 10-year study that formed the core content of this doc.Tongue partly in cheek, Lisbon tried to dismiss h

Andria Gibbon–founder and president of Protecting Paws for Life, a nonprofit Florida organization dedicated to helping more domestic violence shelters become pet-friendly–recalls, as a young woman in New Jersey, her transformative first foray into animal rescue, never imagining she’d still be doing it 27 years later. I